Widows

Published August 9, 2019

Film info

Title Widows

Director Steve McQueen

Year 2018

Run time 2hrs 9m

Genres Thriller, Crime

Tagline Left with nothing, capable of anything

From the acclaimed director Steve McQueen (12 Years a Slave) and co-writer Gillian Flynn (Gone Girl) comes a blistering, modern-day thriller with a powerful ensemble cast! When four armed robbers are killed in a failed heist attempt, their widows - with nothing in common except a debt left by their dead husbands' criminal activities - take fate into their own hands to forge a future on their own terms.

Live blog

Time

Comment

2:45

Great view out the back of the van.

4:56

Conflicting to grieve for someone who died thieving.

7:05

“These days it’s all about name recognition.” Ugh, politics.

12:41

Love that there’s no subtitles!

14:05

Art v wallpaper.

19:02

Weirdly more outraged by him desecrating the statue than offing two of his ‘friends’.

24:45

“He should have loved you more and the bookies less.” ARGH!

36:00

Being an aide must be soul-destroying.

44:37

I wish I had a driver, general helper person.

49:44

“You want all the good stuff, none of the bad?”

56:58

Auctioneers are crazy, how do they talk like that?

58:00

“We have a lot of work to do, crying isn’t on the list.”

1:06:26

Ugh, the word optics in this context really pushes my buttons.

1:12:23

Not lovely Bash!

1:16:26

Yea! Stand up for yourself lovely woman I don’t know the name of.

1:18:56

“Can I put my dog down?” Poor choice of words, surely.

1:23:07

Two Irish people, having a chat on a boat, one of whom is doing a far better American accent than the other.

1:28:55

Sooooooo who is looking after her kids now?

1:29:10

“I don’t require a vouch.” SASS.

1:38:42

“Where exactly would you like me to stand?” With this film? Eff knows.

1:50:14

The masks are scary.

1;51;33

Upside down!!

1:57:53

“I couldn’t save us. I had to save me.” Annnd, he’s a dead man.

Thoughts

Hmm, conflicted on this one. Overall, I think I liked it but that comes with a heck of a lot of caveats.

The good is that the acting was top notch, it was a well crafted movie, and the story revealed itself quite well. I can see the hand of Gillian Flynn all over it. Everything that happened was important to the story, nothing was throwaway.

But there were a few things that annoyed me. At times it felt like it was being too clever. The van thing, I thought it was just a bit of rubbish Hollywood effects - why would gunfire make a van split in half? - and turns out it was actually a massive plot point. But it had been bugging me for the whole movie, which meant the reveal wasn’t fun, it was just annoying.

The relaxed tone was misleading, because you really had to pay attention. Even small things, like standing at a window with your rich client talking about buildings, turned out to make a huge difference to the story. They should really give you a heads up that you need to pay attention at the start.

And then the tone was weird. Sometimes a bit jokey, sometimes crazy violence, most of the time just frustrated and miserable. And whilst the stakes were clearly high, I’m not convinced this was their only option. The others went along with it far too easily.